We like it when people collaborate. There’s something pleasing about imagining a bunch of folks with unique interests and skills embracing their differences to do something they wouldn’t have been able to on their own. What’s even better is when those different people with different skills happen to be two of your favourite practitioners in architecture and illustration respectively, coming together to produce a huge, colourful shed in the middle of the woods.

Ecology of Colour is exactly that, a glorious collaboration between Nous Vous and Studio Weave that sees William Edmonds’ precise geometric designs hand-painted onto a beautiful cedar structure, creating an approachable and inviting environment to house dyeing and wildlife workshops for the local community.

Situated at the heart of Ecology Island in Central Park, Dartford the structure was designed “to act as a jolly custodian for the re-imagined park” that has recently received serious investment from the Arts Council and Artlands. Completed in late September, the space is now open to the public and offers a surprisingly scenic environment in one of Kent’s less inviting boroughs.

As the dust settled on London Design Festival, James Darton, on behalf of Freunde von Freunden joined Asif Khan for a stroll around his home borough Hackney to discuss the architect’s life, work and the three Shoreditch-based installations — Relax, Connect and Create — that Asif designed for MINI Living. The full article is published here.

It makes a perfect sort of sense then that a journey into the life and work of London-­based architect Asif Khan should also take the form of a walk around the city he has lived in his entire life.

Julius Shulman was an architectural photographer whose work has captured the imagination of architects, designers and artists. Noted for his ability to document the essence of architectural structures through intuitive compositions, his prolific body of work shone a light on the likes of Frank Lloyd Wright, Pierre Koenig, Charles and Ray Eames, Richard Neutra, Rudolph Schindler, Albert Frey, Raphael Soriano, and more.

Architecture and design practice The Klassnik Corporation has designed and installed bespoke cycle stands along Caledonian Road in north London. The standard tubular form of the stand has been given an unexpected twist inspired by the history of the animals associated with “The Cally” and items of discarded furniture found by the kerb in the area. “Painted in RAL 9005 black and positioned anonymously among other pre-existing stands, these unusual hybrids – including a Cabriole table leg, a Greyhound dog’s leg and a fluted chair leg – create subtle and surprising visual glitches through their appearance, disrupting the standard repetition of the street’s furniture,” says Tomas Klassnik, director of The Klassnik Corporation.

A new app designed by Barcelona based Studio Clam allows users to learn more about this year’s Serpentine Pavilion, designed by architect BIG. The app has a clear interface that explains the different processes behind the construction of the structure, its operation and relationship with the environment. Users can explore the components that make up the temporary structure, currently installed in London’s Hyde park, and explains the concepts and processes that each piece assembled to create the sculptural pavilion. The app, developed as a personal project by the studio as they are such big fans of the architect, allows users to move around a 3D model of the buildings and focus on aspects of the design, such as the continuous, undulating seating, to find out how they are fundamental to the concept as a whole.

The Pavilion of Reflections is a timber construction designed by students from ETH Zurich in collaboration with architect Studio Tom Emerson. The pavilion consists of a theatre, a pool and a bar and will be open to the public for 100 days throughout the Manifesta 11 festival. The students led the concept development and construction process under the guidance of the architect. “Our team represents all the relevant areas of architectural production. From the development of the concept, through detailed planning and construction of 1:1 models, to logistical organisation and documentation with our own little newspaper, in which the project is addressed from a variety of perspectives,” says Boris Gusic of Studio Tom Emerson.

When Alejandro Aravena, the artistic director of the 15th Venice Architecture Biennale, gave his event the title Reporting from the Frontline he called upon architects to show how alert they are to events. In doing so he created a few problems, as a glimpse across both the 88 participants from 37 different countries in the main exhibition and the 62 national pavilions shows. For a start, architecture in its existing mode takes time. Secondly, if it is to be quick it needs to rapidly adapt existing technology and social infrastructure to do so (and the contributors seemed hesitant to explain how this might happen). Lastly as it turns out, architects aren’t very good reporters.